The association

The University of Helsinki PhD Students is an association for all doctoral candidates at the University of Helsinki. Our goal is to advocate the interests of doctoral students and to function as a liaison between doctoral students and the University of Helsinki. We do our best to promote the wellbeing of our internationally diverse graduate community and by coordinating collegial events we promote networking and collaboration among PhD students from all research disciplines. As an organization we also strive to ensure that doctoral students receive the top notch educational experiences they are seeking.

The association is an independent organization, but we collaborate with both the Student union (HYY) and the university.

More on the forms of activity and other things you can find in the bylaws in English and in Finnish the HYVÄT Action plan and budget 2018 (in English and Finnish) and this blog.

The language(s) of the association
The working language of the association is english because this is the language that at present best unites the international scientific community. In pratice this means that all board meetings, regular activities, Blogposts,  and Facebook uodates are in English. We do however recognice that multiple languages are used around the university. At the association’s two annual meetings (spring and autum meeting) all members therefore have the right to use either one of the national languages Finnish and Swedish, or English. You are also welcome to contact the board in any of these three languages.

Beacause of the Finnish association law the official language of the assocation is Finnish, which means that Finnish is used in official documents like minutes from the associations two annual meetings, action plans etc. We always also make unofficial English translations of these.

We do know that the ideal situation would be to have everything translated in both national languages Finnish and Swedish, as well as English, but because the board is a bunch of people working for HYVÄT on the side of their full-time work with their doctoral dissertations, it does not have the resources to translate everything. We hope you understand and support the pragmatic decision to use mainly English.

You can also follow us on Facebook at Helsingin yliopiston väitöskirjatutkijat ry